Java: how do I check if a Date is within a certain range?

Question

I have a series of ranges with start dates and end dates. I want to check to see if a date is within that range.

Date.before() and Date.after() seem to be a little a

Answer 1

This was clearer to me,

// declare calendar outside the scope of isWithinRange() so that we initialize it only once
private Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();

public boolean isWithinRange(Date date, Date startDate, Date endDate) {

    calendar.setTime(startDate);
    int startDayOfYear = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR); // first day is 1, last day is 365
    int startYear = calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR);

    calendar.setTime(endDate);
    int endDayOfYear = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR);
    int endYear = calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR);

    calendar.setTime(date);
    int dayOfYear = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR);
    int year = calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR);

    return (year > startYear && year < endYear) // year is within the range
            || (year == startYear && dayOfYear >= startDayOfYear) // year is same as start year, check day as well
            || (year == endYear && dayOfYear < endDayOfYear); // year is same as end year, check day as well

}